New Lawn Mower

YardMachines by MTD

May 3, 2010

Five years ago we moved away from cutting our own lawn to a yard service.  This resulted in our lawn being neat and tidy looking even when we were away.  Now if you have been following this blog you will know a lovely green carpet is not my idea of being eco-friendly.  The problem is while gradually reducing the grass it still has to be maintained until it can be eliminated.  So the lawn service fit the bill nicely.  This spring as I was going through my normal 'where can we be a bit more frugal' spring cleaning, the lawn service became one of my targets.

The lawn service was costing us $650 per year but they did all the cutting, trimming and bagging.  Several times they cut the lawn when we were away even though it didn't need it and shorter than it should have been especially in the summer.  The real problem was the bottom line was the lawn service was adding to our carbon footprint not decreasing it.  Most times there were 3 people during a cutting session with 2 mowing and one trimming.  They drove to get to our house then drove to the dump's compost pile to unload clippings then drove home.  That's a lot of carbon going into the atmosphere!  At the same time one of our kids volunteered to cut the lawn while we were away so our house will be watched on a regular basis with lawn cut all for a bit of food from the pantry and freezers plus the use of our outdoor grill.

We bought a YardMachines by MTD from Home Hardware at a total cost of $316.37 that will give us a net savings this year of $339.68 followed by $650 each year after that.  The mower has a 139cc MTD PowerMore OHV engine designed to run more efficiently and produce fewer emissions than the standard L-head engines.  It has a 21" deck with 8" wheels and 9 position individual height adjustment.  It is also a mulcher or we can bag the clippings and is front wheel drive self propelled.

My husband is looking at the new mower as his new get into shape equipment so that was a rather pleasant turn of events! We really are looking forward to keeping our lawn the way we want it, not too short.  It's surprising how much both of us missed doing our own lawn care too but that could be due to a lot of the ripping out here finally being done.  Now we can start focusing on lawn reduction strategies!


Happy Gardening!

Garden Gnome
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